Wasps stung at Worcester

Worcester gave themselves some breathing space in the relegation battle after defeating Wasps 29-23 with a bonus-point on Friday.

Worcester gave themselves some breathing space in the relegation battle after beating Wasps 29-23.

Home fly-half Andy Goode opened the scoring with a penalty before two Nicky Robinson penalties gave the visitors an early 6-3 lead.

The Wasps advantage was a brief as the Warriors dominated all facets of play in an absorbing half an hour of play. Firstly, a sweeping move exploited the overlap for full-back Chris Pennell to race in to score the unconverted try.

Then a powerful forward surge from the Warriors pack was halted just before the line before an exquisite Goode chip in behind Wasps' defense was dotted down by winger David Lemi. Goode's conversion took the Warriors into a well-deserved 15-6 lead.

The Warriors controlled most of the play and had the substantial territorial advantage as half-time approached. On the stroke of half-time Robinson had the chance to reduce the deficit but his penalty attempt drifted just wide.

Wasps hit back immediately after the break when a turnover inflicted by the influential Ashley Johnson saw the ball recycled to T Rhys Thomas whose try took the score to 15-11.

The Warriors nightmare start to the second-half continued when Josh Drauniniu was yellow carded for deliberately knocking the ball on before Johnson made the most of the numerical advantage to score and help Wasps retake the lead 18-15.

In this epic see-saw encounter the Warriors responded in quick fashion as a rampaging line-out drive enabled Warriors number eight Blair Cowan to cross as the try-scorer. Replacement fly-half Danny Gray's conversion took the score to 22-18.

With Andrea Masi in the sin-bin for a shoulder charge, scrum-half Johnny Arr found some space to touch down for the bonus-point try and extend the hosts lead to 29-18 with ten minutes remaining.

Wasps determinedly went in search for the losing bonus point and it took a try from replacement Jack Wallace deep into added time to secure the vital point for the London side.